Catherine Wolfram

Starting in July 2025, I am a postdoc at ETH Zurich in the group of Yilin Wang. Last year, I was an NSF postdoc and Gibbs Assistant Professor at Yale. In May 2024 I graduated from MIT with a PhD in math, advised by Scott Sheffield. Before that, I was an undergraduate at the University of Chicago. I'm interested in various topics related to complex analysis, probability, and geometry. Here is my CV.

You can reach me at either: cwolfram at math dot ethz dot ch OR catherine.wolfram at yale dot edu. (Note: after January 2025, I will not receive emails sent to my old MIT address.)

Papers

  1. (with Richard Kenyon) The multinomial dimer model (2025). [arxiv]
  2. (with Franco Vargas Pallete, Yilin Wang) Epstein curves and holography of the Schwarzian action (2025). [arxiv]
  3. (with Nishant Chandgotia, Scott Sheffield) Large deviations for the 3D dimer model (2023). [arxiv] [pdf]
  4. (with Dragomir Saric, Yilin Wang) Circle homeomorphisms with square summable diamond shears. Int. Math. Res. Not. (IMRN) Vol. 2024, 17 (2024). [arxiv] [pdf]

Talks and travel

A list of past or upcoming travel and talks as of now, with some links to slides or recordings.
  • April 2025. Random Geometry in Math and Physics, Simons Center for Geometry and Physics, Stony Brook, NY.
  • January 26-30, 2026. New interactions between probability and geometry, IPAM, UCLA, Los Angeles, CA.
  • November 3, 2025. Vienna Probability Seminar, Vienna, Austria.
  • August 25-29, 2025. Workshop on Universal Teichmüller Theory, Aussois, France.
  • June 16-20, 2025. Perfectly matched perspectives on statistical mechanics, combinatorics and geometry, CIRM, Marseille, France.
  • April 18, 2025. University of Chicago probability and statistical physics seminar, Chicago, IL.
  • April 7-11, 2025. Complex Faces, Venice, Italy.
  • April 5, 2025. AMS sectional meeting session on Probability and Combinatorics, Hartford, CT.
  • February 19, 2025. University of Michigan probability seminar, Ann Arbor, MI.
  • November 12, 2024. Princeton probability seminar, Princeton, NJ.
  • October 18, 2024. Columbia probability seminar, New York, NY.
  • September 24, 2024. Northwestern probability seminar, Evanston, IL.
  • August 12-16, 2024. 11th World Congress on Probability and Statistics, Bochum, Germany.
  • June 17-19, 2024. Workshop on Probabilistic Field Theories, Aalto University, Espoo, Finland.
  • June 1-15, 2024. Visiting IHES.
  • May 12-17, 2024. Statistical Physics and Random Surfaces, Oberwolfach.
  • May 6-10, 2024. IPAM Workshop III: Statistical Mechanics Beyond 2D, Los Angeles, CA.
  • April 23, 2024. Seed Seminar of Mathematics and Physics (online).
  • March 4-8, 2024. KPZ meets KPZ workshop, Fields Institute, Toronto, Canada.
  • January 16, 2024. University of Edinburgh probability seminar (online).
  • November 27, 2023. MIT probability seminar, Cambridge, MA.
  • November 10, 2023. University of Chicago probability and statistical physics seminar, Chicago, IL.
  • November 6, 2023. Brown combinatorics seminar, Providence, RI.
  • November 1, 2023. Informal seminar: dynamics, geometry, and moduli spaces (Harvard), Cambridge, MA.
  • September 29-October 1, 2023. Asymptotic limits of discrete structures workshop at ICERM, Providence, RI.
  • September 27, 2023. Harvard CMSA probability seminar, Cambridge, MA.
  • September 21, 2023. MIT integrable probability seminar, Cambridge, MA. (recording available on request)
  • July 10-July 13, 2023. dimers2023 [slides]
  • June 13, 2023. Percolation today
  • May 25, 2023. LA probability forum
  • April 28, 2023. Informal analysis and probability seminar (IHES)
  • March 24, 2023. Courant probability and mathematical physics seminar
  • March 7, 2023. Rutgers geometry/topology seminar [slides]
  • February 22, 2023. Informal seminar: dynamics, geometry and moduli spaces (Harvard)
  • February 7, 2023. CUNY hyperbolic geometry seminar
  • October 28, 2022. Random Geometry and Statistical Physics Workshop in Philadelphia, PA
  • July 7, 2022. Probability and Mathematical Physics in Helsinki, Finland [recording]
For videos of 3D dimer simulation slices featured in some of my talks, see here.

Teaching

I'm not currently teaching. When I was a PhD student at MIT, I taught recitation sections for four semesters: three times for 18.600 (probability and random variables) in Fall 2021, Spring 2022, and Fall 2023, and once for 18.02A (multivarable calculus) during January 2023 (IAP).

Undergrad work

I spent two summers during undergrad at the University of Chicago math REU. The papers I wrote can be found here and here.

Some pictures